Reece Thompson's rising star helps 'Rocket Science' lift off

By PAULA NECHAK, SPECIAL TO THE P-I

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, August 9, 2007

With his first feature film, it seems the director of the lauded documentary "Spellbound," is on a roll. "Rocket Science" is an odd charmer with a whisper of autobiography (Blitz makes his film's protagonist a stutterer, just as the director was in school) and it's made even better by young lead actor Reece Thompson. With the grace of a young Edward Norton, Thompson is a real find.

The story follows Hal Hefner (Thompson) as he navigates dark waters in suburban New Jersey. His parents are separating, his brother bullies him and his stuttering causes him stress and humiliation at school. When he's unexpectedly recruited by his crush, Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick), to join the debate team Hal gets a fast-track lesson in growing up.

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Despite Hal's brilliance, he can't get to the podium and articulate his visionary speeches; in fact, he can barely spit out a syllable before his stuttering overwhelms his spiel.

If this sounds precious with a capital "P" -- not to mention just another contender in a long line of indie comedies about dysfunctional families -- Blitz has so much empathy for the nerds of Plainsboro High you can't help but become involved in the drama. He counts the late Hal Ashby as his film hero and, like Ashby's observant comedies ("Being There," "Shampoo," "Harold and Maude"), he revels in the nuances and nebulous gray areas of his characters' personalities. As a director, he keeps Hal very still in most scenes, so it seems the world is literally flying around our hero's head, while he sits in silence, trying to figure out how to articulate it.